Uutros

In the Primordial Age, the vast seas of Creation’s West were home to many mighty beings: Oliphem Watcher of the Sea, the Zaratan, and even the Primordials themselves, for Kimberry and her souls favoured movement through the depths of the waters as she swam her unfathomable course. Amongst these creatures was a great behemoth known as Uutros the Inescapable, the Sea that Chokes the World

Ancient legends, now almost forgotten, speak that Uutros the Inescapable was forged before the light of the Unconquered Sun ever shone upon the face of Creation, as a devourer of other Behemoths, those mighty beings forged by the Primordials and those half-shaped monstrosities lurking beyond the edges of Creation. Uutros stalked the edges of the Wyld and the depths of the oceans in search of its prey. No claw or fang could pierce its armour, no thick skin or bone could resist its jagged teeth, no being could help but flinch at the sting of its virulent poisons. The purple glimmer of Saturn demands that even great and immortal things must have their endings, and Uutros devoured all it could seize to bring this about.

But nature is bane as well as purpose, for as Sol Invictus and the Incarnae emerged to secure Creation in their turn its Wyldborn prey came less and less into its path, and Uutros was left to its own devices. The nature of Uutros demanded that it devour great things, and the greatest of all Behemoths in the West was Lintha Ng Oroo, the living continent, the sanctuary of the Sea that Marched Against the Flame. Swimming the Wyld seas, Uutros found certainty as it stalked this great prey as it had all before it, dug in its claws, unleashed its venoms, and began to eat.

It is said that the rumblings of pain shook Kimberry from her fathomless thoughts, and the great Primordial turned its baleful attentions upon Uutros, this thing which dared disturb one so much greater. Kimberry did not slay the predatory Behemoth, for to end it might bring it some satisfaction. Instead, the Sea that Marched Against the Flame took from Uutros its shell, leaving it naked before the world, and took its bones, leaving it without tooth or claw or shape. And one more thing was taken from Uutros by the rage of the Primordial: the very ending it had sought to bring to all was denied to it. The broken creature was then cast back into the waters of Creation, where it might live on in suffering for all eternity.

From the moment of its punishment, the Behemoth Uutros was changed. No longer resolute and certain, it grew fearful of those great things that had once been its prey, attempting to flee their approaches. And yet, it still hungered, and so it turned to lesser things for its sustenance: ships, and those who manned them. Its hunting, more cautious now, came to rely on knowing where ships would gather… and the gleaming marker it followed was the light of Oliphem.

Oliphem watched the seas and guided the ships upon them, and so was distraught by the predations of Uutros. Time and time again, the metal giant would strike at the gelatinous Behemoth, rending it asunder or casting it away, but each time Uutros would take his shape once more and return to his feasting, for neither being had means to end their battle.

An ending came, however, and when it did it rode upon the wings of Solar Exaltation. As the seeds of the Primordial War began to grow, the young Exalted made their preparations for it, and one of these preparations was an attempt to convert the Behemoth Oliphem to their cause, so that the fleets of Primordial loyalists such as the Lintha could be easily outmaneuvered. The Eclipse caste Solar Desus, long a friend of Oliphem, led his circle to gather up a host of gifts they might lay at the feet of the Behemoth to secure his loyalty, and the greatest treasure of them all was an end to the threat of Uutros.

The Exalted knew the jellyfish-behemoth could not be slain with sword or fist, but a plan was hatched: Uutros was lured from the deepest waters of the West, to the shallower more open seas where the Pole of Earth stood closer than the Pole of Water. Here, they employed Charm and artifice not to cut at their target but to petrify it, freezing it motionless and weighing it down. Uutros keeled over, his body resting upon the bottom of the sea while only the very longest of his now-rigid tendrils broke the surface.

In the ring, the Exalted worked further wonders, weaving enchantments and agreements to ensure protection from ill weather and docks to welcome any ship… for those vessels braving the dangerous expanse between the West and the other Directions, the resting place of Uutros would be safe harbour, and the Watcher of the Sea would need only aim his light towards it to direct any vessel he favoured to safety.

Oliphem refused the gifts of the Solar Exalted, and for upholding his duty was broken by them. The island port that-was-once-Uutros was put to use as staging ground for warships pushing back the armies of Lintha and Pelagial to oust the Primordials from their thrones, and then as secure harbour for trade ships moving between West and Isle through much of the First Age and beyond into the second, where it is known as Wu Jian.